Hey! I am trying to figure it out. Maybe I am too old. Maybe I don't get it. Maybe I am being played. Maybe we all are. Are things in the United States really O.K.? Do the Republicans really hate the Democrats...and vice versa? Did the President really go golfing after an 8 minute speech about an American getting beheaded? Did the President really say we have no strategy to fight terrorism? Was the President really wearing a tan suit? Did Janet Yellin really say we are in a worse economic situation since the depression? Is California really going to add $1.20 to the gas tax pushing a gallon over $6.50? Did ISIS really post on social media that they intend to infiltrate the U.S. Southern border? Did Russia really send tanks, missiles, and infantry into Ukraine? Did NATO say that their only response is another bank sanction? Did Hamas really declare victory? Are all black murders in the U.S. really committed (by 91%) by other black Americans? Is the Administration really race baiting us just to earn a vote? Did all of our Vets who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan really do it for ... nothing? Did we really give billions and billions of military equipment to Iraq so a bunch of jihadist terrorists could just take it? Did ISIS really ban history and music? Am I seeing and hearing this and is it for real? Come on! You really couldn't make this stuff up even if you wanted to.All over the world chaos is reigning. Poverty, twisted religion, sickness, nationalism, overpopulation and the haves vs. the have nots. Of course, maybe more things that change, more things remain the same. Information overload. Are you ready for the ride? Is your seatbelt on? Forecast...severe turbulence.

That's how I see it today, confused, bewildered, and still trying to figure it out! August 30th, 2014. Just finished my coffee, might need another so I can....WAKE UP!

I am hoping this ISIS thing doesn't get out of control. Wishful thinking? I hope not. It appears that the "lack" of foreign policy on behalf of the United States in the Middle East might have set a precedent. People, thousands of them, are now dying. Would it of made any difference had the U.S. done things differently? Irrelevant, now. The question, today, is what do we do now? What is the long term plan? How do we repair all the damage now done to our previous allies. How do we re-earn their trust? Is it even possible? Does the U.S. just hunker down and wait for another 9/11? All good questions. If you are a leader, accept the responsibility. If you can't do that, get out of the way and let someone else do it. Every single Arab nation is now on full alert. Islamic Radicalism is at the front door. They are not knocking, they are kicking the door in. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Jordan, and Egypt are the most at risk. In the next few months a new player might enter into the mix. It is a country that ran the entire area prior to the British taking it over. We called it back then, the Ottoman Empire. Yes, Turkey is now being threatened. They are not the same country they were a hundred years ago. There is a possibility the may go to the extremist side. Let's hope not. It appears that we are entering a new phase of Middle East warfare. New alliances are being formed even as I write this article. Hell, Egypt and the UAE attacked Libya independently last week! It is the autocrats vs. the jihadists. It remains to be seen where all of this is heading. One thing is for sure, the lack of policy and clarity from the West is not helping the problem. Here is a question, "Why does the U.S. taxpayer have to pay for all of this?" That's how I see it, today, August 27th, 2014.

This four year old was killed last week by a Hamas mortar. There have also been numerous children killed in Gaza by retaliatory strikes from Israel. Each and every death, especially children, is a tragedy. The "news media" is not reporting the real problem. The real problem is Arab-Muslim intransigence perpetuated by the unceasing hatred of Jews by the leaders of Islam. I hold EVERY Arab country that has failed to make peace with Israel responsible. This holds true both for Saudi Arabia and Iran. These countries, the bastions of the faith for both Sunnis and Shiites and hence the leaders of Islam, only want to sew discontent, hatred, and death for the Israelis. However, the recent moves by Qatar are now being noticed. They, too, now are involved. I hope all the Arab-Muslim people enjoy seeing people being killed, maimed, beheaded, slaughtered, shot in ditches, raped, oh...I digress. That's an Arab on Arab, Muslim on Muslim problem. Until the Arab/Muslim/Islamic world grows up and becomes an adult, you can expect more chaos. They don't get it. Their governments don't get it. Their religion, if you can call it that, doesn't get it. I am quite confident when I say that Mohammed and Allah are both more than disappointed in the sole called "religion of peace" and what it has morphed into. Here is what I know. Another child is dead. His name was Daniel, named after the prophet in the Bible. Maybe Israel's adversaries ought to re-read that one. That's how I see it today, August 26th, 2014. My sympathies to all the families who have lost a child in this continual conflict. Blessed is the true judge.

This was my fourth year attending the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. It is the bike race through Colorado, for those of you not familiar. Last year, I was able to follow the entire race on my motorcycle. This year, I only made it to Colorado Springs. I was not disappointed. Jens Voight put on a great show, making this race his retirement. Downtown Colorado Springs was filled with spectators as the tour made 4 laps between there and The Garden of the Gods. Tejay van Garderen won the overall. It is too bad that world affairs, politics, and war couldn't be more like a bike race. In the race we have crashes, excitement, winners and losers. After the race, we all grab a beer and talk about it. The riders hang out with the spectators, talk about the next challenge, the next race. The vendors sell their wares. People laugh, spend money, and the girls can watch guys walk around in Spandex! There is very little, if any, hate. Just wondering, what if, a big IF, the countries of the world could settle their differences through sports instead of bullets? What if the Palestinians had a soccer team and challenged the Israelis every weekend? What if the Iranians played basketball? How about the Saudis in a swimming pool? Here ya go, Russia vs Ukraine, winner buys the beer, playing hockey against each other. Wishful thinking? I'm just saying...WHAT IF? So, that's how I see today, out here on the plains of Colorado, August 25th, 2014.

This is the flag of ISIS/IS/ISIL, whatever you want to call it. They call it the "Islamic State." Let me tell you in no uncertain terms what it is. It is the flag of "Evil." Period. To date they have killed thousands. Most recently with beheadings, shoving crucifixes into the throats of children, and committing mass murder of civilians and POWS. Just as the NAZIs were allowed to commit all kinds of atrocities throughout the 1930s, so far, these guys have been given a green light because the other team is too afraid to fight. Hitler knew very well Europe did not want another war and he used it to his advantage. He took Czechoslovakia, the Rheinland, and Austria all without firing one bullet. The "Islamic State of Murders" is doing the same thing, with one exception. They ARE firing bullets! Millions of them. So far, for almost three years now, they have been successful. They are hoping that the fears of the West hold true. Only until last week, when the United States starting bombing their asses, did we get their attention. If you haven't notice yet, no one has tried to stop them. France just started transferring weapons to the Kurds. Good for them. I am not a fan of Barack Obama, but a least he listened to the Pentagon last week and started sending a message. A new day is dawning. The people of Islam will now have to take sides and fight. Europe, the United States, the West is not committed to bailing them out this time. I will make a small prediction. Hopefully, I pray, I am wrong. This "Caliphate of Evil" will continue to spread and it will be fast. It will encompass every single Middle Eastern country and millions of people, yes millions, will probably die. It will, it is, the beginning of World War Three. Sad, but true. Iran, Turkey, Syria, UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Oman, Eritrea, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel, and more will be sucked into this quagmire of death. The United States, the E.U., China, and Russia will also have to choose sides. The war is here...it started. My advice, choose wisely, hunker down and prepare. Also, just in case you forgot, Hitler and the NAZIs lost. That's how I see it, today, August 24th, 2014.

ISIS has their flag, I have mine. I remember my first quarter of college. I was at Revelle College, a branch of UCSD, in California. I had signed up for pre-med. I had gotten there a couple of weeks before classes were suppose to start because I figured out that I could use that time to go surfing. My dorm was only a fifteen minute walk to Black's Beach in La Jolla. It was great. Warm, a good break, on shore breezes, sand, and a cliff for a backdrop. My friends and I would go down there at the crack of dawn, 5am. Around 10am we would head back to the dorms. In October of that year I was making my way back to my dorm room when I noticed all the flags. I was still carrying my surfboard when I saw flags from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Israel. Each flag was hanging out of a dorm room window. Hundreds of them. I couldn't figure it out. I asked myself, "What does this have to do with medicine?" I later found out that the Yom Kippur War had broken out. When the war was over, all the Arab flags disappeared, the flags of Israel remained. Some did not come down until the next summer when classes ended. That was the beginning of my education. Years later, with a degree in History and pilot licenses under my belt, I was trying to figure it all out. One of my teachers was an ex-WWII bomber pilot whose job was to carpet bomb Germany. He lived, many of his friends died. He simply told me that you have to be on the right side, your mission in life has to be just. You have to fight off evil. You have to win and never give up. It has been forty-one years since that summer of awakening, the Middle East is probably worse off than it has ever been. Evil in not just lurking, it is in your front yard, at your doorstep. Our leaders need to be lead. They don't get it. Someone, somewhere needs to bring us back together. I personally don't want to wait for a shopping mall to be shot up. If you are reading this and are "content" with your life, you obviously aren't paying attention. Someone is knocking at your door and it is not the mailman.The flag of ISIS is upon you and they are not going to bring you great cheer. Time to stand-up and fight. Bring it on! That's how I see it today, August 22nd, 2014.

I am not a big fan of Eric Holder. Here's why. Instead of fighting for "justice," he uses his position for political purposes-this is something an Attorney General should never do. So, under the guise that he is serving the people, he is not. He is only furthering his own agenda. Like Obama, he will go down in history as one of the most partisan appointees ever to hold office. The future will not be good, to either of them. The current race-baiting being perpetuated in Ferguson, Missouri, is more than unfortunate. Once again, just like Trayvon Martin, the "truth" is not being told. The liberal media, again, in order to "race hype" the nation, downright lies. The media would have you believe that every white cop goes to work every day just to shoot black people, bullshit. All police officers, black or white, green or yellow, put on their badges to protect the public and "risk" their lives to do so. SHAME ON THE MEDIA! The liberal media is an embarrassment to itself and if it wasn't for the fact that they own a monopoly controlling the TV airwaves, they would be out of business. Eric Holder and Barack Obama have one thing in common, they hold "all" white people responsible for the slave history of America. They can't even pretend anymore how contemptuous you "white" people are. If Holder and Obama could have their way, they would see riots in all the streets across the USA just to prove that their mislead conceptions of society are correct. I remember when the Democratic Party attacked, yes attacked, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, General Colin Powell, Justice Thomas Clarence...all for being "black and Republicans." What the Democratic Party did not like about these individuals was there was "no apparent" chip of their shoulders to knock off. All of these "African Americans" had earned their way up the political, judicial, and military ladders through "excellence." Excellence, which as by all appearances, seems to be in short supply today. I personally would of voted for all three of them had any of them choose to run for President. As long as race-baiters like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Debbie Wasserman-Shultz keep manipulating the minorities, the longer the minorities will continue to suffer. It is in the best interest for the Democratic Party and their minions to keep marginalizing the minorities so they can hold on to power. What the "minorities" don't seem to understand is this...they are being intentionally manipulated so the few at the top can hold on to "power." I am sure, if Frederick Douglas was alive today, he would be having a cappuccino with Rice, Powell and Thomas. He would probably say, "Well done!" That's the way I see it today, from the plains of Colorado, August 22nd, 2014.

I can not help but notice the similarities between Battlestar Galactica and current wars in the Middle East. After Facebook and Twitter were used to propagandize the beheading of James Foley, one important fact in abundantly clear: we have no idea who the enemy is, no understanding. We are, in fact, fighting the Cylons. The unbridled, catastrophic misunderstanding of the enemy is leading to more than a calamity of errors. It is making the problem worse. After decades of placating the enemy, interfering in conflicts and interfusing the United Nations into the mix, we finally, finally, are starting to get a glimpse at the foe. Even after 9/11, we still didn't get it. Even after a war in Iraq and Afghanistan, we didn't get it. Only until now, until we see the beheading of a journalist on our "smartphones" are we starting to understand. It is not too late. However, it is too long. We have now emboldened the adversary such that they are now using our own equipment against us. They have our humvees, our tanks, our gps guided howitzers, and every U.S. small arms we gave the Iraqis. They also have input to our "social media." It is high time that we WAKE UP and take notice. They are using our "weak" president against us. If ever there was an example that "the best defense is a superior offense," it is now. It will take years, yes years, to overcome the legacy of destruction wrought by the present White House Administration. Hopefully, painfully, as we start to notice, we will make the proper changes. If we don't, your children can look forward to more "beheadings" on their smartphones, ipads, and computers. Can you live with that? Is that what you want. DO SOMETHING. That's how I see it, August 20th, 2014.

This is James Foley, a journalist. He was beheaded today over in the Middle East by the ISIS/IS terrorist group. They are now threatening to do the same to another, Steven Sotloff. Both are Americans. They will probably follow through with the threat. I am putting Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS/IS, on notice. You can run, but you can't hide. Sooner or later, you are dead. Your Caliphate is dead. Your bullshit you call religion is dead. War is war, and you, like all the knuckleheads before you will just die. Your entire movement will die. While you rejoice in your temporary kingdom of pigshit just keep in mind that the CIA and MI6 are carefully planning their next move. Just like Osama bin-Laden, just like Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi, there is a "hellfire missile" with your name on it. You don't get the date though...Good luck with that. I do want to thank you for putting a face on your religion. It is obviously a topic for another discussion. And for all you "liberals" who think you can negotiate with terrorists like "Hamas" you should reconsider your position. And that also goes for the present administration in the White House who just "released" five terrorist generals! It is going to be a terrible decade of death if something is not done, and done now. That is what al-Baghdadi is hoping for. He is hoping that the apparent weakness and lack of resolve in the West is for real. Is it?...only time will tell. Hopefully, this "wake up call" will be noticed. That's how I see it, on this sad day, August 19th, 2014. My prayers to the Foley family.

I am not a racist. I am white, or rather, a Scottish/English/Cherokee/American. Huh? Yeah, I never classified myself as such. When I grew up in L.A. in the 60s and 70s there were only blacks, not African Americans. Half of my friends were black. I was white. It did not matter. We went to school together. Played football and track together. I remember when I was a senior and my best friend told me he couldn't be my friend anymore. He came down to the gas station where I worked until 11pm all week and just told me, bye. I was flabbergasted. I asked him why. He just looked me dead in the eye and said because I was white. He was black. I never saw or heard of him again. He dropped out of school and disappeared from my life. I still remember his name. It is not that I don't dislike Obama. I dislike what he does. He intentionally turns people against one another for his own, selfish, narcissistic goals: black against white, Democrats against Republicans, liberals against conservatives, Christians against Muslims, you against me. Why? So he can earn his 250,000 thousand dollar weekend speech? So he can sell another book? So he can feed his ego? Obama is exactly like all the politicians that preceded him. He is just a lying, disgusting excuse for a human being. Shame is not in his vocabulary. He wouldn't be able to take responsibility for his life if it landed in his lap. His race baiting takes the cake. I hate it when people in society take away my friends. That's how I see it, today,August 15th, 2014.